About Rocky Nook Harnischmacher The Wild Side of Photography

The Wild Side of Photography Unconventional and Creative Techniques for the Courageous Photographer

Cyrill Harnischmacher

Cyrill Harnischmacher is a photographer This book introduces seventeen photographers The simple-to-follow articles not only Topics include: Rocky Nook‘s mission is to publish books and designer who lives and works in and their unconventional photographic views explain the techniques involved, but also en- • Laptop ministudio on cutting-edge developments in photography, southern Germany. His fi rst book, of the world. The projects described cover courage you to get off the beaten track and • Camera hacks imaging, and technology that really “lowbudgetshooting“, won him the diverse themes, ranging from experimental make your own photographic experiments. • Pole monopods for aerial photography matter, and to focus on practical usage that prestigious Fotobuch-award of the focusing and spherical panoramas to unfamiliar The results are often amazing and always • Blur (motion blur, camera motion, out-of-focus) will enhance capabilities. Our ultimate goal German Bookseller Association in 2005. viewpoints, creative use of light, unusual satisfying. • Kite photography is to foster image quality. Cyrill is a studio photographer by print media, and high-speed, remote-controlled • Using a scanner as a camera profession and a nature and infrared photo sequences. All of the authors are • Little Planet views Our authors have a substantial amount of photographer by passion. motivated by a common desire to break new • Texture blending experience and deep technical understanding technical and creative ground, and the results • Camera and lens building projects of the subject matter. Although our make it clear that digital technology and “old books will cover technology to a large extent, school” analog techniques can be innovative our mission goes beyond technology and productive allies. Cyrill Harnischmacher to promote and support creativity, quality, and effi ciency.

Rocky Nook is based in Santa Barbara, The Wild Side of Photography California and is closely associated with dpunkt.verlag in Germany. ISBN: 978-1-933952-51-2 US $ 29.95 www.rockynook.com CAN $ 37.95 Unconventional and Creative Techniques for the Courageous Photographer

Cover_wild_side_01.indd 1 15.07.10 09:49 Project Editor: Gerhard Rossbach Production Editor: Jimi DeRouen Copyeditor: Lisa Danhi Layout and type: Cyrill Harnischmacher Cover design: Cyrill Harnischmacher Cover photos: Cyrill Harnischmacher Cyrill Harnischmacher Printer: Friesens Corp., Printed in Canada

ISBN 978-1-933952-51-2

1st Edition © 2010 Rocky Nook, Inc. The Wild Side of Photography 26 West Mission Street, Ste 3 Santa Barbara, CA 93111-2432 www.rockynook.com Unconventional and Creative Techniques for the Courageous Photographer

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Harnischmacher, Cyrill. [Wilde Seite der Fotografie. English] The wild side of photography : unconventional and creative techniques for the courageous photographer / Cyrill Harnischmacher. p. cm. Translation of: Die wilde Seite der Fotografie: mit unkonventionellen Techniken eigene fotografische Ideen verwirklichen. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-933952-51-2 (alk. paper) 1. Photography--Experiments. 2. Photography--Special effects. 3. Photography--Digital techniques. I. Title. TR148.H3713 2010 775--dc22

2010023678

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All product names and services identified throughout this book are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. They are used throughout this book in editorial fashion only. No such uses, or the use of any trade name, are intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with the book. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the copyright owner. While reasonable care has been exercised in the preparation of this book, the publisher and authors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

This book is printed on acid-free paper A Walk on the Wild Side

In the late 1960s, the Canadian Willard Sterling and the US The themes covered range from experimental focusing to the American George Elwood received the Nobel Prize for Physics for combination of ultra-modern and “old school” photographic tech- inventing the charge coupled device, or CCD. This invention and niques, and include printing on exotic materials and the creative the developments in camera and software technology that followed use of light. The desire to break new technical and creative ground hailed the start of a period of extreme visual creativity. As well as is the common motivation shared by all of our authors, and the giving us previously unthinkable technical scope, modern digital resulting images will amaze, impress, and satisfy you in equal parts. technology has also allowed us to develop new emotional and conceptual approaches to taking and creating pictures. This book I would like to thank all of our contributors for their commitment is intended to introduce you to part of the amazing spectrum of and inventiveness, without which this book would never have hap- creative photographic techniques that has developed in the decades pened. We also hope we can inspire you to develop your own ideas following the introduction of the CCD, although the ideas shown and to discover your very own photographic wild side. here represent just the tip of an enormous iceberg. The examples in this book have all been created by photographers who give their Cyrill Harnischmacher all to break with convention while pursuing their visual ideas. Many of the results demonstrate clearly that using modern tech- nology doesn’t have to exclude the use of tried and trusted analog techniques, and the main emphasis of most of the articles is on the “perfect” image and the techniques involved in producing it. Table of Contents Night Sights Using Creatively in the Dark Michael Diechtierow 94

The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars Simple Ways to Shoot Spectacular Astrophotos Cyrill Harnischmacher 104

Landscape Blurs Klip-Klap Part 1- Notes on Process and Approach Alain Briot 1 Getting Started with Stereoscopic Photography Tobias Pohl 120

Landscape Blurs The Flatbed Camera Part 2 - Image Processing Workflow Alain Briot 10 Taking Photos with Scanners Gottfried Huettemann 126

Show Time What do You Print On? A Mini Photo Studio in Your Notebook Computer Gerhard Rossbach 24 Printing Images on Unconventional Materials Michael Benecke 130

Near and Far Gotcha! Using Telephoto and Macro Lenses as Telescopes and Microscopes Cyrill Harnischmacher 30 High-Speed Photography Using a Photoelectric Release Cyrill Harnischmacher 138

Camera Obscura Soft-Focus Lens Analog and Digital Pinhole Cameras Tobias Pohl 38 Create a Effect with Vaseline Mike Hagen 146

Graffiti Made of Light Little Planets Light Writing with LED Lamps Niklas Plessing 46 Seriously Twisted Panoramas Christian Bloch 154

The Earth from Above Light Changes Everything Kite Aerial Photography Michael & Karen McAllister 56 Using Dedicated Flash Professionally Martin Krolop 170

Selective Focus A View From Above Build Your Own Tilt/Shift Lens Cyrill Harnischmacher 68 Aerial Photography with a Telescoping Monopod Mike Hagen 180

Color, Blur, and Verve Camera Hacking Closeup Photography Revisited Anett Boettcher 76 Activating Hidden Functionality in Canon Consumer Digicams Berthold Daum 190

Diver Down The Authors 208 A Look at the Fascinating World of Underwater Photography Kai Wallasch 84 Landscape Blurs Part 1- Notes on Process and Approach

Alain Briot

#8 1 Landscape Blurs Part 2 - Image Processing Workflow

Alain Briot

10 11 The Authors

Michael Benecke Christian Bloch

Michael Benecke was born in 1965 in Hamburg, Germany. Having Christian Bloch is a visual effects artist who lives and works in shot his first photos on a 6x6 box camera as a preschooler, he Hollywood, California. inherited a Voigtländer from his grandfather and has been infected The last six years of his career have seen him create effects for with the photo virus ever since. His job in design and printing TV series such as Star Trek, Smallville, Invasion, Lost, 24, and introduced him to the early digital imaging revolution, and he has Studio 60, as well as for numerous movies and advertisements. His been shooting exclusively in digital since the year 2000. His current work has been honored with an Emmy and has also been nominated camera is a Four Thirds system Olympus E-420. He processes his for a Visual Effects Society Award. He is considered to be a pioneer images on a Mac and is a great proponent of home printing, as of the use of HDRI techniques in the high pressure worlds of TV this is “the only way to keep full control of an image". and movie post-production. Michael has lived in the Lower Rhein area of Germany for the Christian graduated in media studies at the Leipzig University past fifteen years. He draws inspiration for his photos from the of Applied Science in Germany and wrote his degree thesis on his tension between industrial development and the natural environ- favorite subject, “The Practical Usage of HDRI Imaging in Post-pro- ment near his home. duction”. His thesis was awarded a scholarship by the university.

208 209 Anett Boettcher Berthold Daum Alain Briot Michael Diechtierow

Anett Boettcher is a qualified office clerk and design assistant, Berthold Daum studied photography in Melbourne, and has Alain Briot creates fine art photographs, teaches workshops, and Michael Diechtierow started taking photos at a young age, having and has run her own successful portrait and wedding photo studio published his Australian photos in various exhibitions and books. offers DVD tutorials on composition, printing, and marketing pho- bought his first analog SLR with money from his confirmation. for some time now. She is an unconventional, spontaneous, and In addition to his enthusiasm for photography, he has a real pas- tographs. Alain is also the author of Mastering Landscape Unfortunately, because he had neither the money nor the patience emotional artist. Passion and inquisitiveness are more important sion for his job in information technology. He has a doctorate in Photography and Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativity, for buying and developing film, the camera ended up hardly used. to her than technique when she is creating images. She finds her mathematics and is an expert in the development and application and Personal Style. Both books are available from Amazon and His real start in photography came with the purchase of a digital subjects spontaneously in everyday situations, and post-processing of programming languages and databases. He has lectured and other bookstores as well as directly from Alain. Alain's third book, compact camera that he used to make hundreds of images of using Photoshop is an integral part of her workflow. You can view written books on both subjects. Marketing Fine Art Photography, will be published by Rocky Nook variations on themes. He now uses a D300 and his collec- some of her work at www.anett-boettcher.de. Berthold’s “camera hacks” form an interface between IT and in 2011. You can find more information about Alain's work, writings, ted experience to photograph a little more systematically! He is photography, and his new book The Canon Camera Hackers and tutorials on his website at always experimenting with new photographic techniques and is Manual was recently published by Rocky Nook. http://www.beautiful-landscape.com. especially interested in the creative use of flash. Alain welcomes your comments on this essay as well as on his other available essays. You can reach him directly by email at [email protected]. You can also see a new online portfolio of Alain’s Landscape Blurs at http://www.beautiful-landscape.com/Portfolio-Blurs.html

210 211 Mike Hagen Cyrill Harnischmacher Gottfried Huettemann Martin Krolop

Mike Hagen is a passionate adventurer and successfully combines After studying art and working for several years as a graphic artist Gottfried Huettemann was born in Berlin, Germany in 1940. He Martin Krolop only began to take photos in 2006, but has pursued his photographic skills with his love of nature. As a digital photog- in various advertising agencies, Cyrill Harnischmacher started his studied painting and art history at the Academy of Fine Arts in photography with a real passion. His favorite themes are action raphy teacher, location scout, and workshop leader, he contributes own graphic design agency in 1997. Over the years, he has written Karlsruhe, Germany, as well as English and indology at Heidelberg and people photography, but he also likes to shoot large-scale set regularly to a number of magazines and websites. Mike founded many articles for specialty magazines on the subjects of photog- University. He worked as a teacher at various schools, managed an pieces that include street scenes and even fictitious SWAT missions. his company, Out There Images (OTI), in 1998 in order to raphy and digital image processing, and designed books for various editorial office in Benares, India for a time, and is now retired. He Martin is self-taught and writes a photographically-themed blog communicate his love of photography to other people. He is well publishers. He is experienced both as a photographer and a has been involved in the arts all his life and nowadays takes pho- at www.krolop-gerst.com/blog when he is not busy with other known for his energy and enthusiasm and, if you should get to photographic contractor, and is especially interested in macro tographs using an analog, medium format and a digi- photographic assignments. take part in one of his workshops, you too will be captivated by photography and unusual technical solutions to photographic tal compact. He is a member of the German Photographic the patience and infectious verve he uses to communicate his problems. He has written three books, all of which have been Academy and the artists’ association in Baden-Württemberg, knowledge to his students. Mike lives and works in Washington awarded German book prizes and that have been translated into Germany. State, USA. several foreign languages.

212 213 Michael & Karen McAllister Niklas Plessing Tobias Pohl Gerhard Rossbach

Michael and Karen McAllister live and work in Santa Barbara, Niklas Plessing is a 22-year-old information technology student Tobias Pohl began to take photos while documenting his voluntary Gerhard Rossbach developed a taste for photography in the 1950s, California. Michael has been a keen nature photographer for many from Heidelberg, Germany, and has been a hobby photographer work with various youth groups, and quickly began to experiment carrying his dad’s tripod before taking his own first steps as an years, and his enthusiasm has turned into a hobby for both him since he was sixteen. Although he is too young to have been an with black and white darkroom techniques. During his studies to action photographer using an Agfa Isolette. His first camera didn’t and his wife. They spend a large part of their free time in the active analog photographer, he is nevertheless influenced by become a photographic engineer, he and his fellow students took survive the rigors of kindergarten life but, as joint owner of the desert regions of California and Arizona where they document not analog values and techniques. He considers the quality of an part in numerous analog and digital projects with the motto “maxi- dpunkt and Rocky Nook publishing houses in Heidelberg, only the unique landscapes and fauna of the region, but also the image to be more important than the quantity of images shot—a mum image quality and creativity with minimum resources”. Tobias Germany and Santa Barbara, USA, he has nevertheless managed rock formations and early Indian settlements in the southwestern parameter that is nowadays only limited by memory card capacity. uses as little technology as possible and focuses primarily on image to turn his hobby into his profession. He has spent the last five USA. On their search for new outdoor photographic techniques, He chooses his subjects carefully, as if the high cost of shooting composition. He is a passionate monochrome photographer and years publishing numerous books on various photographic themes they came into contact with Kite Aerial Photography (KAP), which analog photos still applies to his work. He came into contact with still shoots much of his work on film. He scans his images and on both sides of the Atlantic. Gerhard is a passionate photographer, now forms a major part of their photographic work. You can find light writing after hearing about the pioneering German light applies a minimum of post-processing before printing them on fine and although he has realized that others can do it better than he more information at www.kiteaerialphotographer.com. writing group “Lichfaktor”, which roughly translates as “The Light art papers using a customized inkjet printer converted for use with can, he still loves to take pictures. This insight also helps him to Factor”. Since then, you can regularly find him out and about with grayscale inks. appreciate and nurture the work of his many authors. his friends, his camera, and his lights, on the lookout for new ideas.

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